Tolerate: to allow;exist or occur without interference.
Intolerance: unable or indisposed to tolerate; unwillingness to recognise and respect

I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.

Gluten and lactose are not my friends.

Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.

I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

August 29, 2012

Mission Impossible

Littlej is an enthusiastic student

Actually, on her report card her science teacher used the word Boisterous- but in a good way, she did get an 'A'

One of those kiddies who love going to school, love their subjects, and love their teachers. She also loves extra-curriculars and throws herself into them entirely without thinking of the consequences when they all coincide.

This is one of those weeks

Three days this week are off classes- One at a Peer Review training day on Sustainability, One as a full day practice for an Academic tournament (they won silver last year for all Australasia), One at a Junior United Nations (training for International Crisis Management- will it stop her arguing with her sister though?)
One evening at her self defence class (in case International Peace Keeping Talks break down perhaps)
One evening at a further rehearsal for the Tournament
All day on the Weekend at the Tournament
Plus 2 assignments due, including a hand crafted example of Medieval history- in this case making a portion of chain mail armour... link by link by link by link by link.......

littlej is confident she can handle it all in her stride
Mum is yet to be convinced

Anyway, my Mission Impossible this week is to keep her healthy, happy and well fed- not as easy as usual with so much running around and odd appointments. The answer to this dilemma was obvious: Impossible Pie

A couple of minutes to make, thrown together in one bowl with the crust forming Impossibly while it bakes. Tasty hot or cold, lunch or dinner- even breakfast (well it is eggs and bacon right) Imagine the possibilities!

One of the great things about this pie/quiche is that you can mix and match the filling to what you have on hand
I've included spinach and spring onion, but you could use a tin of salmon, grated carrot or zucchini, shredded cooked chicken or whatever happens to take your fancy at the time

Pop the flour, eggs, milk and seasonings into a bowl and give them a quick whisk until nice and smooth with no lumpy bits

Just like this one

Add in the bacon, cheese and Various Extras, then stir through

Pour into a well greased oven proof dish, just making sure the filling ingredients are well distributed so share-sies are fair-sies

Bake at 200*C for 40 mins, then check to see if the pie is nice and set without too much wobble, but give another 5 minutes if needed
Can anyone spot my deliberate mistake? I purposely left mine in for that extra 5 minutes to show you what-not-to-do. I'm nice like that :)

......Mine obviously didn't need that extra 5minutes... or the previous 5 minutes either

I blame my new Microwave/Oven/Grill thingy for the burnished top as I'm still getting used to it and am finding out I need to drop the temperature just a bit as compared to my beautiful big oven.
My microwave recently gave up on me, and I decided that Convection combi was the way to go. There's nothing wrong with my other oven but I thought the little one would be handy if I just wanted to cook a small dish. It is- but I'm still figuring it out :)
BTW the top wasn't burnt, it's just the spinach bits that look really dark- but I caught it just in time!

Let's just ignore the top for the moment shall we, and concentrate on looking at how the flour sort of sifted down to the bottom of the pie to create a firm base. Obviously not flaky and crispy, but perfect for holding it's form and offering stability to the pie

Despite the extra time in the oven, the pie is lovely and creamy inside and was a big hit with littlej stuffing it down at 4pm for an early dinner to hold her off until she was back at 8.30pm for more. It was also handy for holding cold wedges one handed while grabbing her bags and running out the door, and nice to eat warmed up with the new oven on microwave mode for lunch

Mission Complete. Impossible?.... Not with this recipe!

Pie flipped over for photos to show you how the base looks (not to hide the burnt bits, I promise :P )

So Dear Readers, have you ever had an Impossible Week, and have you had trouble adjusting to a new appliance before?

What a schedule. Great that she's so involved but wow! How did all those commitments end up converging at the same time. This is a great pie. I make a similar one (not all that similar when I think about it) but it's a bacon and egg pie and it has a pastry base and you can add other things to it like tomatoes and shallots and parsley etc. This is great because it can be eaten on the run - and she'll be doing plenty of that! xx

Very cool Becca, I have a similar recipe which uses Saos, but since I haven't been able to bring myself to buy packaged biscuits, I haven't made it in ages. ;-) I used to make chainmaile and there are some fabulous websites - tell LittleJ to check out www.urbanmaille.com..

Your littleJ sounds a lot like my Tara - cheerfully signing up to everything going. Was it tournament of the minds? Tara was at that on Sunday too. I found myself silently hoping they would not win as there were too many activity clashes. Then we found out they were in the top 3..sigh...but luckily they came second and only the first goes on. Hooray for one less activity! This impossible pie looks like a very good dish for a busy household. I will definitely give it a try.

Crikey! - just reading about Little J's schedule makes me tired :-)I love these quichey things. I make something similar, but I cook them in little silicon muffin pan things. They make a fabulous, easy-to-grab breakfast...And yours doesn't look at all burnt to me :-)

About Me

The InTolerant Chef is the nom-de-plume of The InTolerant Chef.She lives in Canberra,Australia,with her husband Big J, and 2 daughters, Little j and Middle C. Gluten and Lactose are not her friends. She also has many chemicals who refuse to tolerate her, and insulin finds her hard to resist. Despite all this, the InTolerant Chef is a healthy,happy person who loves cooking for her family and friends.